The present invention relates to a multi-pole plug connector.
More particularly, it relates to a multi-pole plug connector which has a strip composed of a plurality of plug parts or socket parts, and a plurality of corresponding socket parts or plug parts, with coding elements insertable in insertion recesses of the plug parts and socket parts.
Plug connectors of the above-mentioned general type are known in the art. The coding system in the known plug connectors includes the provision of receptacles on the plug parts, on one hand, and on the socket parts, on the other hand, and the receptacles are provided with the coding elements for the coding purposes. Different embodiments are known for the position of the receptacles and the type of the coding elements. They are disclosed , for example, in the German documents DE-B No. 28 07 017, DE-A No. 34 17 855, and DE-C 30 14 804. With the known coding systems, the plug and socket parts having equal respective numbers of poles can be coded. This type of coding is, however, problematic when it deals with long strips with a high total number of poles, and is composed of plug or socket parts arranged in a row and having different respective numbers of poles, wherein the coding can prevent the possibility of interengagement of plug parts and socket parts with non-equal number of poles. The problem is especially severe when relatively many parts with a lower number of poles, for example two- to three-pole parts are available, since then the total possible number of different coding combinations possible in the system is not achieved here. In this case alleviation is possible by introduction of the poles themselves into the coding system, which naturally leads to a loss of poles.